Dyslexia Awareness Week and Guide Dogs Week

Oddly this week has not just one significance, but two. First of all, it’s Dyslexia Awareness Week, a great opportunity for all organisations involved in dyslexia to promote awareness of the condition and secondly, it’s Guide Dogs week, where Guide Dogs raise money for continuing the services they run. So here’s a quick overview of the official info for both weeks.

Dyslexia Awareness Week 3 to 9 October 2016

The major charities involved in supporting people with dyslexia have come together to decide on this year’s theme, which is identifying dyslexia. The thing with dyslexia is, it’s not something that’s indisputably obvious, that it doesn’t have strikingly visual symptoms such as being unable to walk, being deaf or being blind, it’s more to do with the brain working differently. There is and always has been much psychological debate around the value of diagnosis as well as a stigma around people with dyslexia, as is the case with many other conditions of the mind. So, this theme gives dyslexia organisations an opportunity to take a look at why they think identifying dyslexia is important. To do this, they have broken the week down in to the following sub-questions with one for each of the five days:

Monday: Why is it important to identify dyslexia?

Tuesday: How is dyslexia identified?

Wednesday: How does dyslexia affect people differently?

Thursday: What help is at hand for those with Dyslexia?

Friday: Why is the right help important and how can we raise awareness together?

Additionally, Thursday 6 October is World Dyslexia Day.

So look out on the internet for podcasts, videos, articles and content on social media about these themes and dyslexia in general. If you want to find out about some specific events for the week then check out some of the websites of key dyslexia charities, do a bit of google searching or look around on social media. For social media, the hash-tag this year is dyslexia2016.

Guide Dogs Week 1 October to 9 October

Most people know what a guide dog is. But what you probably don’t realise is that it costs thousands to train a guide dog. And that doesn’t even include all the other services Guide Dogs offer. They offer mobility training, which is something blind and visually impaired people need to be able to travel and live independently. So, events like Guide Dogs week, are a really key way for Guide Dogs to make money.

This year they’re running a Move it for Money campaign, where they’re encouraging people to give up a bit of their time to fundraise in a way that interests them. They suggest the traditional ways of fundraising such as cake sales and sponsored sporting events, but put emphasis on the idea of people fundraising in a way that motivates them.

So look out for advertisements about different fundraising events online and perhaps get involved in one to raise some money.

Are you doing something for either Dyslexia Awareness Week or Guide Dogs Week? Please let us know in the comments below.

It’s a very interesting point about if developers should make their games accessible or not, or how far they should go.
I feel there are somethings that developers can do but there will be a point where game play will be compromised and that is not in their interests or for those without a disability. Some options to make the game easier to play maybe or a simplified control method.
FIFA for example has a mouse control option. This makes it possible for some alternative access devices to be used.